The end (almost)

While Shannon was at camp I went to the capitol building in Denver and took a tour. Then I went to the Museum of Science and Nature, whose highlights (for me) were their large gemstone collection and native american exhibit. I also saw an IMAX movie there ("Bugs").


The mile-high marker on the steps of the capitol building.

I spent some more time with Shannon and her fellow YFCers when they went to a Denver area and church and distributed free loaves of bread in the neighborhood. Afterwards we went to this great restaurant called Casa Bonita, which I overheard someone say is "the Mexican Chuck E. Cheese". The place is gigantic and they have entertainment like cliff divers, magicians, and a mariachi band. The magician performing in the room where we were eating was amusingly amateurish and made a little girl cry by pretending that he was going to pour a cup of water on her head. After dinner we went back to the campers' hotel in Denver for a worship service, and then I went back to Heather and Fred's for that night while Shannon stayed.

The next morning all the campers were going back, so I picked up Shannon from the hotel and we gathered our stuff from Heather and Fred's and we took off eastward. We drove through the rest of Colorado and a big portion of Nebraska and spent the night in the middle somewhere. The next day we kept on going and made it to just outside of Des Moines and stayed in De Soto, which is right next to the covered bridges of Madison County and John Wayne's birthplace.



The next day we intended to go to the art museum in Des Moines, but we realized it was a Monday so it was closed. So then we continued eastward to the Amana Colonies, a commune near Iowa City settled by Germans in the early 1800s. On the way there, though, Shannon started feeling sick and by the time we got there it became apparent that we couldn't stay for long. So we decided to head home to Arlington.


The end of the road... or is it?

That was two days ago. Shannon was finally feeling well again today, so we took some time to unpack and sort things. Something rather dramatic/traumatic: I bumped into Shannon with my bag outside the car and knocked out one the two opals in her engagement ring! So we spent a lot of time looking for it. Eventually I started making small squares to carefully comb, and on my second square I found it. Phew.

Tomorrow we're going to go back to the Amanas. I guess our trip continues, in one way or another. So check back!